‘It’s clear good against evil, I had to help’
AYOUNG man from Cheltenham is putting his life at risk by helping civilians stranded on the frontline in war-torn Ukraine.
Chris Parry said he was inspired to help them because of the “clear good against evil” situation following Russia’s invasion of the country.
The 27-year-old is originally from Cornwall but now lives in Sandford Street, Cheltenham. He has joined other volunteers who are bravely driving perilously close to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine in order to evacuate people stranded in villages that have been devastated by the war.
With shells passing over their heads and the sound of gunfire ringing in their ears, Chris and his colleagues have been driving their vans through the war zone in the Donbas region before picking up men, women, children and animals and taking them to safety.
He said: “After seeing it on the news, I was really affected by it. I was obsessed about it. It’s a clear good against evil thing.”
He first went out to Ukraine in March and has been there for much of the year, although he came back to England for a time in the summer. He said he felt he should do so because he had gone out there without telling his family and he wanted to let them know what he was doing.
Now back out on the frontline, he says he has no plans to return home again unless the work he is doing is completed or the war ends.
Video footage shows him wearing armour as he and his colleagues, some speaking English but others Ukrainian, go about their incredibly dangerous job. He has seen bodies of people and animals who have been killed and many buildings that have been destroyed.
The former coach at Cheltenham Running Club said one of the most tragic moments was seeing a woman who was distraught because her daughter had been killed and her dead body was close to her. That was while he and his team were in Bakhmut in the Donetsk Oblast region of the country.
There was another occasion where he returned to a house that he had previously been to, only to find it had been destroyed. Happier times have included rescuing elderly people who were immobile and had no chance of leaving their homes without help and picking up eight puppies who needed a safe trip away from the war zone.
Chris and his fellow volunteers have found that their vans are getting stuck a lot as the weather gets wetter. He is therefore raising money to buy a 4x4 so that he can continue evacuating people through the winter.
In an online appeal, he spoke about helping a 25-year-old woman and her four-year-old son.
He said: “They were in southern Bakhmut, where they had been waiting for an evacuation by any group for a month, but nobody would go to that area. Our group then received the request and made it our priority to try to evacuate them the next day.
“When we arrived, there was a firefight between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers in the next street, while a large artillery battle was happening all around. An hour later they were safe, warm and fed at a hospital in a nearby city.
“Oh yeah, and he had a new toy car to take his mind off things which one of the group gifted to him.”
He added that the group also helped a 32-year-old woman and her four children. They had been surviving in a cellar in occupied Russian territory since March after their father was taken by the Russians.
Chris is hoping to buy a Toyota Land Cruiser and has raised more than £7,000 towards his target of £17,500.